DC Heavy Metal

This blog specializes in heavy metal music and how it relates to Washington DC and the surrounding area. Featuring info on upcoming metal concerts in Washington DC, Baltimore and Virginia, as well as info on local bands, area concert venues, reviews of live gigs, and lots of give aways.

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I’m teaming up with Brewer Will over at Fair Winds Brewery again for another Brutality At The Brewery metal night event this Saturday, August 1st from 7pm to midnight! It’s free to get in and we’ll be playing metal tunes all night, drinking delicious craft beer and hanging out with metal heads as we take over the tasting room. There’s a new set up this time so it will be much louder than the first Brutality At The Brewery was! The guys in Yesterday’s Saints will be on hand as we tap the Yesterday’s Saint’s black kolsh beer, Seas Of Annihilation, brewed specially for this event! It will be available until it runs out so don’t drag your feet getting there.

Fair Winds Brewing is located just off I-95 where it intersects with the Fairfax County Parkway on the border of Springfield and Lorton. The address is: 7000 Newington Rd, Lorton, VA 22079 (Google Map here).

And did I mention that I’ll be there giving out tons of prizes, including concert tickets to many upcoming metal shows in our area. We’ve got so many prizes that it’s going to be hard NOT to win something if you show up! You can see the list below (for most of them we’ll be picking 2 winners that will each get their own pair of tickets):

Dying Fetus at the Pinch on 8/6

Summer Slaughter (Arch Enemy headlines) at Rams Head Live on 8/13

High On Fire/Pallbearer at Baltimore Soundstage on 8/20

Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth guitarist) at Baltimore Soundstage on 9/9

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats at Baltimore Soundstage on 9/11

Godflesh at Rock & Roll Hotel on 9/13

Ghost at the Fillmore on 9/22

Overkill/Symphony X at the Fillmore on 10/16

Kamelot/Dragonforce at the Fillmore on 11/18

Mayhem/Watain at Baltimore Soundstage on 11/25

We’ll also be giving away a 24″ x 36″ poster for the beer’s artwork, seen below.

Well this isn’t directly heavy metal related but when I heard about the new Max Max movie, officially titled Mad Max: Fury Road, was coming out I have to admit that I was excited since I have always liked the Mad Max movies. So when I was given the chance to give away 30 pairs of tickets (60 tickets total) to an advance screening at 7:30pm on Wednesday, May 6th (that’s THIS Wednesday!) in Silver Spring I couldn’t turn that down! The Mad Max: Fury Road advance screening will take place at the Regal Majestic in Silver Spring (map). To claim your free pair of tickets just click on the link here and either create a free account or just log in using your Facebook, Twitter or Google+ user name. The tickets are first come first served and once they are all claimed they’ll be gone. Note that the movie isn’t officially released until May 15th so this is an exclusive advance viewing just for readers of DCHM!

Mad Max: Fury Road is the first Mad Max film to be released in 30 years by the post-apocalyptic franchise’s director George Miller. This is the first film in the series where “Mad” Max Rockatansky will be played by Tom Hardy, the actor that played Bane in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, and it also co-stars Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa. For more info you can check out the trailer embedded below or read about it on IMDB (here) or Wikipedia (here).

I’m teaming up again with Brewer Will to do another metal night, this time dubbed Brutality At The Brewery, on Friday, May 8th, 2015! We used to hold metal nights at Port City but Will is now working for Fair Winds Brewing in Lorton, Virginia and we’d like to continue the tradition at his new nautical themed brewery of employ. The place is right off I-95 at the Fairfax County Parkway exit and takes about the same time to reach as Empire/Jaxx does since you don’t have to drive down Old Keene Mill with all the stoplights. And the tasting room where we’ll be holding this event is brand new and really nice! We’ll be playing metal tunes all night (as usual you can send in requests or even your own band’s music) and giving away prizes like concert tickets and band merch. What more could you want? Well how about a sneak preview of the new King Giant album Black Ocean Waves for starters! That’s right, you’ll be able to hear the new King Giant album first at our Brutality At The Brewery event! Also, since Empire is closing earlier that same week there will be a special discount for all of their employees that have suddenly lost their jobs.

You can get more information on the Facebook event page here and you can send your song requests to Will by posting them there or sending them to him via Twitter at @BrewMetalWill. So come hang out with us and a bunch of the area’s metal heads as we talk metal, drink some great beers and listen to heavy metal all night, and who knows, you may win something too!

This Friday, January 16th through Sunday, January 18th, the 5th annual DC Tattoo Expo will be going on at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. I went last year and had a great time and so I’d like to give you the chance to go to so we’re giving away a free pair of single day passes to the DC Tattoo Expo to one of you lucky readers! To enter: just tell me which day you’d like to attend, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, and on Thursday, January 15th at 4pm I’ll pick one valid entry at random (using Random.org) to get the pair of tickets to go on the day they selected. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any spam lists or sell your info or anything sleazy like that. If I haven’t heard back from the winner in 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. Since the event is so close, please don’t enter if you cannot actually attend. If you don’t win you can still go, ticket prices are $25 per person each day or $55 for 3 days. Under 12 gets in free with a paying adult and there’s a military discount as well.

So what exactly is there to do at a tattoo expo? Well for starters if you’ve been thinking about getting some new ink it’s a great place to browse the hundreds of artists there (see the full list here), many of whom will tattoo you right there at the expo. There are many tattoo artists from all over the country that will be there, including several from the reality shows Best Ink and Ink Master, as well as other famous tattoo artists. In addition there will also be dozens of artists from around the DMV area so if you’re looking for a new tattoo artist to get some serious work done with, this is a great chance to discover them without driving around to a dozen shops. Chris Saint Clark of Nashville put an awesome Cthulhu tattoo on my leg there last year (see it here) and he’ll be there this year again too, and there’s tons of other great artists as well! There will also be tattoo contests for many categories including a worst tattoo contest where the winner will get a free cover up! And there’s also the Miss DC Pin-Up Contest which is open to all women and will have a $500 cash prize for 1st place! So if you’ve never been to a tattoo convention before, or you have but would like to get in free this time, just let me know which day you’d like to go in the comments below!

Hopefully a bunch of you already know about the next metal night I’m doing with the awesome brewers over at Port City Brewery (Facebook event page here). It’s this Saturday, December 14th and we’ll be playing metal tunes all night as usual but this time we’re changing things up a bit and moving it to the Pinch in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington DC (address and map here). There’s a few reasons for this change of venue, the main one is that we can now run much later than the 9pm curfew we had at the actual brewery in Alexandria (that was due to parking restrictions). Another reason is by moving it into the city it’s now Metro accessible, that means you can get there and leave from the Columbia Heights Metro Station which is just 1/2 mile south of the Pinch on the same street. There’s also plenty of street parking around the venue and don’t worry, Columbia Heights is a really nice neighborhood so you don’t have to worry about your car. The venue is a full service bar and restaurant so you can get food there and let me tell you it’s great food! I highly recommend the waffle fries with duck and BBQ sauce. In addition to all of this the venue also has a small stage downstairs and the guys in Borracho are going to play a special set for us this evening. This isn’t really a concert though, there’s no other bands playing, but we thought it would be cool since Port City has brewed a small batch of the Borracho Smokin’ Brown Ale just for this event! There will be many of your favorite Port City beers available all night too. In addition to all of that I’ll be there giving away prizes throughout the night, including concert tickets to the following upcoming metal shows: Amon Amarth/Enslaved, Children Of Bodom/Death Angel, Carcass/The Black Dahlia Murder, Darkest Hour/Pig Destroyer, Morbid Saint, Iced Earth, Between The Buried And Me/Deafheaven, Metal Church, Chimaira, Mobile Deathcamp and more! The doors open at 6pm and the event runs all night but the ticket give aways will be at intervals between 8pm and midnight, and Borracho will play during that time as well.

And as usual we’ll be playing a metal set list all night (well, except when Borracho is playing) and Will wants your song requests! Send him your favorite metal songs of 2013, favorite local bands, or just your favorite metal songs in general by emailing him at will@portcitybrewing.com or send them to him via Twitter at @PCBCBrewMetal. Don’t wait til the day of cause he’ll be busy setting things up and he might not have time to get to it before everything starts.

So to summarize, send in your metal song requests and show up at the Pinch this Saturday any time from 6pm til last call (which is 2:30am in DC on Fridays and Saturdays). Enter to win some tickets and enjoy some great beers with other metal heads breaking only for a free show by Borracho. What’s not to love? Now to get you in the mood, check out this killer Borracho video.

Can’t figure out what to get your favorite local metal head for the holidays? Looking for something you can wear to any metal show you go to regardless of genre of the bands playing? We’ve got you covered here at DCHM! The Richard Nixon Vol 4 design and our brand new design, The True DCHM, are ready to be preordered and shipped in time for Xmas arrival if you get your order in by Sunday, December 15th. We will still accept orders after that through December but no guaranteed shipping on orders after the 15th. Get either shirt in men’s S-XL or women’s (girly cut) S-XL for $15 each including shipping! 2XL will cost an additional $1. If you’d like a larger size or different style shirt, say a long sleeve or tank top, send me an email at DCHeavyMetal@Gmail.com and we can work out the cost for that, though I cannot guarantee Xmas shipping on special orders (I’ll try my best though!). These are quality shirts and while I’m trying my best to keep the cost down for you, they aren’t cheap materials, I want them to last! The men’s shirts are all Gildan brand (a lot of bands use these) and the women’s shirts are Bella.

You don’t have to have an existing Paypal account to use it to pay and you can use a credit card. Be sure to include a note in the message section with whatever address you want the item(s) shipped to and what size you want. If for some reason you don’t send the note properly, just email me from the same email address you made your payment from with the size and shipping info. If you don’t send me the right amount I’m just going to refund your purchase and you’ll have to try again. If you are opposed to Paypal I have started using Square now which will also accept credit cards so just email me and we can find a way for you to pay using that.

I hope you all like these designs as much as I do. If you’re not sure of the references, the yellow one is a parody of the album cover of Black Sabbath Vol. 4 (see the original here) but with Richard Nixon in place of Ozzy. The blue shirt is a parody of the classic Mayhem album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (see the original here) but with the Capitol Building instead of the old church in blue. Order soon because I’m not going to order many of these shirts above the preorder numbers, maybe not any extra of the Mayhem design.

That’s me in the blue shirt and yes I really did go to see the National Christmas Tree in corpse paint. Both of the shirt designs were my idea but since my graphic design skills aren’t as good as my ideas I got RJ Mahoney to actually create them for me. The photos in this post were all shot by Louie Palu and you can see more of his work here. He’s a great photographer and this is probably the most ridiculous thing he’s had to photograph. The black metal style corpse paint makeup in these photos was done by Jessie Campbell, a local freelance make up artist (and metal head) who you can hire for your next photo shoot here. She’s also the model in the girly Nixon shirt. The shirts themselves are printed by MiNDJACKET Designs who can print your band’s shirts too.

If you have any questions about any of this feel free to send me an email at DCHeavyMetal@Gmail.com

With Black Friday almost upon us I thought I’d put a little post up about a few deals some of you local metal heads might find interesting. I’m not a big fan of corporate consumerism and waiting in line at box stores, more power to you if that’s your thing but it’s not for me. This post will try to focus more on local and mail order stuff from places not quite as famous as those mega chain stores but who probably deserve your money even more. This is by no means a comprehensive list so feel free to add more in the comments section.

First up is Record Store Day which decided to have a second date this year that they’re calling Back To Black Friday (the regular RCD was back in April). That means most of the area’s local record stores (and stores around the country) will have exclusive items for sale this Friday, including a sick looking poster by John Baizley of Baroness (see it here). The Vienna Music Exchange and Shockwave Records will both be participating, though Black Mess will be closed all weekend. There will be exclusive releases by Metallica, Life Of Agony, Puscifer, Rush and more, the full list is located here.

If you want to do some holiday shopping/browsing while you’re drinking some excellent beer then I highly recommend you swing by the DC Brau brewery this Saturday from noon to 4pm for the Made In DC Holiday Marketplace. The market will feature booths from artisans and businesses that are all from Washington DC. Even better, you’ll be able to sample various DC Brau beers for free while you’re there! The address of the brewery is 3178 Bladensburg Rd NE, Washington, DC 20018 (map). You can find more info on the Facebook event page here.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about those of you who don’t even want to leave the house on Black Friday, I’ve got some great deals for you and even a few give aways you can enter in to win. I’m not above whoring my own site out so be sure to check out our free Megadeth/Fear Factory ticket give away here and enter to win to see these bands play on 12/4 at the Fillmore Silver Spring. The winner will be chosen at 5pm on Black Friday so be sure to enter before then.

Another contest that you can enter in absolutely for free is from Kylla Custom Rock Wear. This Virginia based company makes custom clothing for bands (and fans!) at reasonable prices and you’ve probably seen bands wearing their gear at concerts including Kreator, Children Of Bodom, Watain, Death Angel and they even made a camera bag for me (it rules). They just opened their Etsy shop (here) and you can check out some of their ready to wear stuff right now. On Saturday they’re picking a winner to get a free custom made for you hoodie or miniskirt and you can find out how to enter to win by going here.

If you’re looking for music and band merch you’ll find a great selection at the Relapse Records online store which will have 20% off everything in their store (except pre-order items and grab bags) from midnight Thursday night/Friday morning to midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning. And don’t think they just have stuff from bands signed to their label, they have stuff from all kinds of metal bands from around the world.

Another online site with a great selection will be Indie Merch Store and starting Thursday night/Friday morning at midnight they’ll also be having a Black Friday sale with 20% off everything for the first 24 hours (that’s all day Black Friday) dropping to 15% off everything Saturday and 10% off everything Sunday. They have music and merch from all kinds of metal bands of various genres. You’ll have to use the discount code BLKFRDY13 at checkout to get the discount though.

Additionally, Metal Blade Records, whose online store is run by Indie Merch, will have several vinyl releases marked up to 40% off. This includes some great releases by bands like Slayer, Electric Wizard, Amon Amarth and Bolt Thrower. Check out the discounted items here and see if you can get the above Indie Merch Store code to work too, you might get a double sale on these items!

Baltimore based record label and distro A389 Recordings will be giving you 25% off your total purchase (before shipping) all day Black Friday when you use the code MITCHROEMER at check out. On Saturday and Sunday you can use the code TASTETHEBEAST to get 15% off your total (also before shipping). Browse their online store here.

Underground metal webzine Cvlt Nation is giving you 50% off everything in their store on Friday, 40% on Saturday and 30% off on Sunday when you use the code BLACKFRIDAY. Check out their online store here.

Record label Prosthetic Records is having a sale from Black Friday through Cyber Monday where everything in their online store is 25% off! Just use the code PRST66613 to get the discount at their store, which you can visit here.

Brutal record label and distro Horror Pain Gore Death Productions is including a free black metal CD with any purchase on Black Friday of $25 or more. You can check out their online store here.

The Omega Order will give you 25% off all vinyl (except new arrivals) all day on Black Friday when you use the promo code FIRE. Check out their online metal music catalog here.

Misanthropy Clothing is giving all orders 20% off when you use the code BLACKFRIDAY at check out. Check out their dark line of clothes online here, I particularly like the Mona Lisa in corpse paint one.

French record label Season Of Mist isn’t doing a Black Friday sale but this coming Monday, aka Cyber Monday, they’ll be marking all regularly priced items 15% off (this even counts for pre-orders). Check out their online store here.

Sargent House Productions has a sale from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. You’ll get 15% off all CDs and vinyl and 10% off all other items during this time. They have merch from bands like Boris, Deafheaven, Russian Circles, Red Fang and more. Check out their online store here.

And don’t forget that prog metal pioneers Fates Warning are playing at Empire on Black Friday, along with the excellent local prog band Iris Divine. This show should be a lot of fun so get the details here and come out!

If you’ve spent all your money there’s a free metal show at The Pinch in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington DC this Saturday night. There’s some great bands playing including some proggy shred from Cavern, chilling black metal from Myopic, epic sludge from At The Graves and only the finest in true American pork metal from SwampHög. The venue has some great beer on tap and a full menu too. And yeah the show is free but if you enjoy the bands be sure to donate a few bucks or buy some merch, trust me, they’re worth it. Get all the details on this show at the Facebook event page here.